IVO, î"vo', OF CHARTRES (IVO or YVO CARNOTENSIS): Bishop of Chartres (47 m. s.w. of
Paris); b. in the district of Beauvais c. 1040; d.
Dec. 23, 1116. He studied under Lanfranc at Bec,
became a canon at Nesle in Picardy, then provost
of the abbey of St. Quentin in Beauvais c. 1078, and
bishop of Chartres in 1090. As the bishop before
him had been deposed for simony, and commanded
some support, Ivo's election was contested; but his
cause was espoused by Pope Urban II., who had
given him consecration. The same pope protected
him when subjected to arrest by King Philip I. of
France, because Ivo had not acquiesced in the repudiation
of Queen Bertha, and the king's liaison with
Countess Bertrada of Anjou. In the investiture
strife (see INVESTITURE), Ivo took a stand of sagacious mediation between the rights of the State
and the Church (cf. his Epist. ad Hugonem archiepiscopum Lugdunensem in MGH, Lib. de lite, ii.,
1893, pp. 642, 649, and his letter of 1106 to Pope
Paschal II. in MPL, clxii. 19). When subsequently
Paschal II. was sharply attacked for his attitude
to Emperor Henry V., in the year 1111, Ivo vindicated
him, and frustrated the design of Archbishop
Joscerannus of Lyons, who aimed to have
Paschal's concessions to Henry adjudged heretical
by means of a great French council (MGH, ut sup.,
pp. 649 sqq.). Ivo was highly esteemed in France,
and was also on friendly terms with Anselm of
Canterbury. The date of his canonization is uncertain;
his day is May 20.

The most important among Ivo's writings are his
collections of canons, wherein he anticipated Gratian,
the Collectio tripartita, the Decretum, and the
Panormia. Both as reflecting his own life and as
bearing upon the history of his time, his letters are
of weight; and there are also twenty-four of his
sermons preserved, some of which are detailed
treatises on dogmatic and liturgical questions. He
also wrote against Berengar of Tours. Certain historical
works of his friend, Hugo of Fleury, have
been attributed to him erroneously.